Welcome to Week 2 of Critical Transitions Online!

This week’s resources and discussion focus on:

• Understanding the terms used in writing transfer studies;
• Introducing research from the Elon Research Seminar on Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer; and
• Considering the implications of writing transfer research for curricular designs.

We invite you to watch this week’s videos, explore the featured readings, participate in this week’s forum discussions, and join us June 10, 2013, for a live chat with Elizabeth Wardle.

Week 2 Videos

The Elon Research Seminar on Critical Transitions: Jessie L. Moore and Chris Anson discuss the Elon Research Seminar on Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer.

Competing Terms: Linda Adler-Kassner, Dana Driscoll, Rebecca Nowacek, Elizabeth Wardle, Carmen Werder, and Carl Whithaus discuss the competing terms Writing Studies uses to describe and theorize writing transfer.

A Snapshot of Elon Research Seminar Projects on Writing Transfer: Participants from the Elon Research Seminar on Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer share snapshots of their writing transfer research.

Writing and the Question of Transfer – Content Matters: Liane Robertson and Kara Taczak, participants in the Elon Research Seminar on Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer, discuss their research on the how the choice of content in first year writing courses impacts students’ writing transfer.

Writing and the Question of Transfer – Writing about Writing: Dana Driscoll, Gwen Gorzelsky, and Ed Jones, participants in the Elon Research Seminar on Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer, discuss their multi-institutional research on Writing about Writing as a pedagogy that facilitates writing transfer.

Featured Readings For Week 2

This week our featured readings introduce work by Elon Research Seminar participants:

• Wardle, Elizabeth. “Creative Repurposing for Expansive Learning: Considering ‘Problem-Exploring’ and ‘Answer-Getting’ Dispositions in Individuals and Fields.” Composition Forum, 26 (2012).
• Boone, Stephanie, Sara Biggs Chaney, Josh Compton, Christiane Donahue, and Karen Gocsik. “Imagining a Writing and Rhetoric Program Based on Principles of Knowledge ‘Transfer’: Dartmouth’s Institute for Writing and Rhetoric.” Composition Forum, 26 (2012).
• Driscoll, Dana Lynn, and Jennifer Holcomb Marie Wells. “Beyond Knowledge and Skills: Writing Transfer and the Role of Student Dispositions in and beyond the Writing Classroom.” Composition Forum, 26 (2012).
• Robertson, Liane, Kara Taczak, and Kathleen Blake Yancey. “Notes Toward a Theory of Prior Knowledge and its Role in College Composers’ Transfer of Knowledge and Practice.” Composition Forum, 26 (2012).

To see other outcomes of the Elon Research Seminar on Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer, visit the Project Showcase.

Week 2 Discussions

Participate in this week’s asynchronous discussions, and/or continue conversations from Week 1. Since participants will post and respond as their schedules allow, we encourage you to check back often to read new posts and continue the conversation. [The Discussion Forum has Closed.]

Week 2 Live Chat

Please join us for this week’s live chat with Elizabeth Wardle on June 10th (8:00 AM Pacific/11:00 AM Eastern). Registered participants will receive an email on June 9th with a link to the live chat. (Registration is free; simply click “register for Critical Transitions Online” on the home page.)

Thanks for participating!

Return to the Critical Transitions Online Schedule